Talk:Better Man/@comment-3575890-20140130080416
Dare I say, the ending of Coven left me completely sated, which is not something that happens often with series finales, but low and behold, an unexpected miracle has taken form in this episode because I couldn't have asked for a better ending. I am so happy that Cordelia is the Supreme. I kind of had a feeling she would be anyhow, but nonetheless, it was still a wonderful feeling to have my hopeful suspicions confirmed. I was prepared for it to have been any of them, but now that I've seen Cordy in particular in the role -- so delightfully powerful, in control, and best of all content with herself -- I can't imagine it being anyone else. Right down to her unwavering loyalty to the coven, her selfless inclination to go above and beyond for the wellbeing of her fellow witches no matter her own suffering, her innately good-hearted soul, and her centered moral compass, Cordelia was always destined to take her mother's place and use her authority to right her mother's wrongs. Clearly, any coven under the protection of a Supreme who willingly gouges her own eyes out for the betterment of it, couldn't be in more capable hands. A lot of ups and downs in this episode. I wasn't counting on Zoe staying dead for very long, so I wasn't particularly affected by her death; however, Misty's death was another matter. I get it. I fully acknowledge that the ending would have been too perfect without the demise of at least one good witch, but on top of that Misty had to die at all, did she really need to suffer the same fate as Marie, Fiona, and Delphine who unlike Misty, were not good people and rightfully received their comeuppance? I suppose the whole point was to show that good doesn't always prevail and bad things have a tendency to happen to the best of people, but it was just too cruel a twist of irony to punish the witch with the single most integrity (aside from Cordy) while the rest of the coven (sans Madison) had happy endings. Another showstopping moment of frustrating injustice? Myrtle's death! I understand that Myrtle was taking the higher road and that I'm supposed to look at it as a good thing that she left the mortal world on her own terms fulfilled with the kind of pride for Cordelia, Cordelia never received from her actual mother, but her death just felt so unnecessary. On the other hand, Cordelia's respecting Myrtle's wishes to be condemned for her crimes demonstrated true leadership from Cordelia, showed ust how great of a Supreme Myrtle herself would have been, and really highlighted how beautifully similar Myrtle and Cordelia are at their respective cores. One concept I really enjoyed was the girls' descent into their own hellbound purgatories even though it was just barely touched on. The description Madison so clearly fabricated of what her personal purgatory looked like was honestly heartbreaking because we did not need a visual to know which painful memory she returned to. Also, I know many are underwhelmed by Zyle's lack of development, but I feel that this episode really showcased just how much Zoe and Kyle mean to each other with Zoe's hell translating into Kyle not loving her and Kyle falling to pieces in event of Zoe's death to him then avenging her. On another note, all of the mindfucking and manhandling done to Kyle on the parts of both Madison and Zoe in this episode I found to be incredibly dehumanizing of Kyle and bordering on some very problematic territory that I won't bother to delve further into. All I will say is that it was very unsettling how Zoe and Madison treated Kyle as a pawn to spite each other and violated his agency however they pleased. I've said it once and I will say it again; I love Madison to death. She was the ultimate HBIC and written as a fantastic successor to Fiona without being a dimensionless carbon copy of her. However, she got every bit of what she deserved and I was very pleased with the turn-out. The irony of her vanity being her very undoing was a clever way to write her out and showed that the writers really do have a firm grasp on how they write these characters. My only complaint is that the nature of her death did feel somewhat anticlimactic for a character that WAS a major antagonist of the series. I did NOT see the plot twist with Fiona still being alive coming, but let me tell you! I was SO happy with that turn of events because her death from last week had left me terribly underwhelmed. BUT the show we got of Fiona seeking out Cordelia's love and acceptance instead of the usual other way around gave me all the closure I needed. Despite what a terrible mother Fiona indeed was to Cordelia, your heart still cannot help but go out to the both of them -- two women who do love each other, but that have a relationship so toxic and dysfunctional it wasn't ever able to take off from the ground. I'm so grateful that that moment wasn't ruined by Fiona underhandedly stabbing Cordelia or something in a final moment of weakness like I had half-expected her to do. Instead we were treated to a rare moment exemplifying that there is some semblance of love between these two women. So in conclusion, I really like that this finale was predominantly emotion-driven. Sure, past the halfway point, the remainder of the series was already pretty much a wrap, but no loose ends were left dangling. Each character reaped the results of their actions be they good or bad and not a single soul was skipped by the karma train. (Though it unjustly trampled poor sweet Misty) Most characters had happy, fulfilling endings that I initially thought not possible for them, all of the antagonists received the retribution they deserved, my OTP was endgame, order was restored in the coven, my bby Cordy reigns Supreme, and the witch race successfully evades extinction. A great conclusion to a great series!